Vibration / Shimmy at Cruising Speed

Are you running Continental tires? I bought an expensive set of Conti's for my wife's Jeep and had a horrible time getting them balanced. They all required a large amount of lead to get them right, with 3 visits required to get rid of vibration. They only made noise at a certain speed. Worked great, and lasted a long time after getting them right.

Are you experiencing vibrations while going uphill around a slight curve? I had my front end checked by a reputable service garage, and the mech replaced a tie-rod, which got rid of the vibration for around 350 miles. I ended up replacing the right control arm, both CV joints (the root of the problem). The control arm came with a new ball joint, and new bushings loaded and pressed in it for a little over a hundred bucks. This wasn't on my Riv, but on a Lesabre with 143k on it. Notice where you're having the noise, and if you're getting it on a slight curve on a hill, I'd bet you have a CV joint that's just about clapped out on you!

Eh, I may replace the control arms soon. I might even just look for a different Riv. I want to find one from out West or down South....a black one.

Bird, I would never buy Continental tires. I don't drive on the highway much, so I really never get to feel the vibration. Out of sight, out of mind. It's been doing it since I bought the car 12 years ago...

Abaddon wrote:

Eh, I may replace the control arms soon. I might even just look for a different Riv. I want to find one from out West or down South....a black one.

Bird, I would never buy Continental tires. I don't drive on the highway much, so I really never get to feel the vibration. Out of sight, out of mind. It's been doing it since I bought the car 12 years ago...

Yeah, I know what you mean. If you look at my old posts you'd note I had had a balance problem, "solved" it with road force balancing. When I replaced my control arms and rear bushings I was embarrassed at how whacked they were. Really, IIRC the rubber bushings really don't last all that long. The nylon ones last forever. The rubber in the front control arm bushings can't really be seen without begin detached from the frame.

I have almost 300,000 miles on my Riv. I'd say it's not a waste, if you like a smooth firm ride, to replace the control arms/rear bushings every 125K, my guess is 150K tops

Hey albert, guess what?

My control arm bushings are bad lol. I just checked them after replacing the cradle mounts.

Abaddon wrote:

Hey albert, guess what?

My control arm bushings are bad lol. I just checked them after replacing the cradle mounts.

would love to hear that this resolves the shimmy for you!! I did replace the control arm assemblies when I had the subframe out and rebuilt my transmission, maybe thats why I never noticed what you guys are seeing.

I think someone said we have the vibration at that certain speed in Park Ave and Auroras too....

Abaddon wrote:

Hey albert, guess what?

My control arm bushings are bad lol. I just checked them after replacing the cradle mounts.

Be sure to R/R the control arm bushings front and rear, Abaddon. They clap out after 75-100K although not so bad as to be unsafe. I am not sure there is a "once and done" replacement.

I have this strange vibration that only happens between ~70-80mph. Any speed faster or slower doesnt seem to be affected.
I hope it's this wack axle, but if not, any ideas?

get a hi speed ballance on your tires and an alignment. my jimmy did that and that fixed it

Every 93+ riv, lesabre, regal, century, and skylark I've driven/ridden in gets that vibration around 70mph. I just figured it was inherent of these cars?

I wouldn't say my experience has been quite so severe. More like a definite shudder to the car as if the road were a bit rough. Just drive faster dude. All or nothing

No way! There has to be a reason. And it's only in between 70-80mph. I WANT A SMOOTH ASS RIDE.
The springs helped out a lot, but once I reach 70ish, the gas pedal starts to shake, my steering wheel gets a little jumpy, rear view mirror, etc..

I want that silk butter ride at 70mph!

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I wouldn't say my experience has been quite so severe. More like a definite shudder to the car as if the road were a bit rough. Just drive faster dude. All or nothing

LOL that's what I do!

Goodness, I have no discipline or self control...
Somebody please help me.

We didn't choose the riv lifestyle. It chose us

I know. I just hope I can get mine fully modded and peak its potential and beauty before it kills me.

One of these days I will try to have a friend tape me getting off an exit ramp.. then you'll see...

llamalor2112 wrote:

Every 93+ riv, lesabre, regal, century, and skylark I've driven/ridden in gets that vibration around 70mph. I just figured it was inherent of these cars?

No way. I've been in most of these as well and none of them vibrate at speed.

charlieRobinson wrote:

No way! There has to be a reason. And it's only in between 70-80mph. I WANT A SMOOTH ASS RIDE.
The springs helped out a lot, but once I reach 70ish, the gas pedal starts to shake, my steering wheel gets a little jumpy, rear view mirror, etc..

I want that silk butter ride at 70mph!

You want a smooth ride? If you have more than say 50,000 miles on your suspension bushings, replace them all. Really.

Weird. I had gone through a time where I started asking friends/fam with them if they too experienced this and just about everyone said yes. Some cars just 50k miles old, some well over 200k with no related issue to this shake. I just shrugged it off as its never bothered me much

The issues that plague the Rivs imo are the way too soft strutmounts and bushings.over time deteriation sets in and your alignment settings are allowed to fluctuate constantly while you drive.this is not so apparent with fresh mounts shocks and bushings.since converting to solid pillow blocks most of these issues have disapeared.one would think that vibration would be at a super high annoyance level but its not the case.I can drive with just the tipof my thumb on a clear highway at any speed and I get zilch vibration or anything.also,before my suspension mods I would be in need of an alignment allmost allways.Now my suspension holds its alignment positively.

New axle installed!
wow! vibrations are gone! Drivers side feels GREAT at cruise speed now!

im wondering if I replace the passengers side if I will achieve EVEN BETTER ride quality!

I think I got some lost power back too!

Robe is right, if Buick wanted "that boulevard ride" soft bushings & mounts is one way to get it but from a value engineering and lifecycle cost perspective is bad for the customer, and is still a flaw IMHO in GM engineering. It does not save money really, it just takes what could be 1-time costs in design and pushes them into recurring costs later.

speaking of bushings and stuff..

When I was doing the brakes last weekend, I noticed the bushings on my sway bar or so old and dried out.

I have at least 1mm gap from the bushing around the sway bar, Maybe 2mm.

Bushings on the cradle look super worn and dried out too.

Quote :

Robe is right, if Buick wanted "that boulevard ride" soft bushings & mounts is one way to get it but from a value engineering and lifecycle cost perspective is bad for the customer, and is still a flaw IMHO in GM engineering. It does not save money really, it just takes what could be 1-time costs in design and pushes them into recurring costs later.

True, but that's why we replace these parts with (hopefully) more robust parts when they wear out. The OEM struts were junk, but each set of KYB struts & mounts I've replaced have gone 100k miles with no apparent degradation. I'm more than happy with this level of durability and performance. That being said, I never had vibration resulting from loose OEM struts. It was tires & wheel balance causing the issue.

Bushings and suspension can magnify the vibration, but the source usually comes from imbalanced rotating parts (tires, wheels, rotors, hubs, axles, flexplate, etc). If you fix the source(s) of the vibration, you'll need to do less covering up with bushings and suspension parts replacement, IMO. I'll never forget going through the process of replacing the struts, mounts, tie rod ends, control arm bushings, ball joints, STB, etc. Each time things got a little better, but it didnt go away. Switched to new wheels and tires - shimmy completely gone. For what it's worth, my rear suspension is completely stock except for shocks and sway bar.

Are we supposed to replace our axles after X miles as preventive maintenance? I am just so surprised at the improvement I saw after replacing drivers side. I kinda wanna do the passenger side now too.

charlieRobinson wrote:

Are we supposed to replace our axles after X miles as preventive maintenance? I am just so surprised at the improvement I saw after replacing drivers side. I kinda wanna do the passenger side now too.

I dont think so.There is an " expected service life" to most parts,mechanical or other.The thing is,if youre on a long ass road trip and a certain part has survived way beyond it's expected service life,will it let you down 2500 miles from home or will it get you back? In aeronautics and in the military,parts are replaced wether faulty or not at the end of they're ESL. If there is no play in a part then its good.for electrical parts there are tests for them. In cars the best advise is "If it aint broke dont fix it" jmo

..but as allways,if ya got the bucks to replace both axles, go for it.

i did both mine cause one was bad and i wanted new on both. go for it charlie

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Are we supposed to replace our axles after X miles as preventive maintenance?

No, shouldn't need to. Mine are both original at 262k miles. Troubleshooting a noise, I once replaced the passenger side with a 30k mile used OEM axle. It changed absolutely nothing, so I knew it was the hub. I took the "new" axle back out and reinstalled my old one with over 200k miles on it.

(proven 200k mile axle > unknown 30k mile axle)

These axles are stout. If you manage to break one, you know something's really wrong. Either grease is gone from the boot, it got thrown into park while rolling, or someone's doing neutral drops.

Or, you just got a bad one from the factory - it happens.